Reflections

Our Personal Resurrection

The story of the raising of
Lazarus from the dead has particular meaning for me. As a chaplain I confront
the reality of death every Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. I talk to
the families of the recently deceased and of those about to be deceased. I talk
to people in the process of dying, or facing death in difficult operations.
More personally, I am the son of a 90 year old man who has far more yesterdays
than tomorrows. Yet more personally, next month I will turn 63. It has come to
my attention that there are very few 126 year olds running around. Like my dad
I also have far more yesterdays than tomorrows.

I can sympathize with Martha, who
said, “Lord, if you had been here my brother would not have died.” (John 11:21)
The death of loved ones always brings up the question: where is God? Why did my
child die? My wife? My husband? Why will I die?

Those questions are very
difficult. I can only appeal to Jesus’ words: “I am the resurrection and the
life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, and everyone who
lives and believes in me will never die.” (John 11:25-26)

Jesus heard about Lazarus’s
serious illness, and was very close to where Lazarus and his two sisters lived,
yet did not come until after Lazarus died. In the Gospel it is explained by
Jesus raising Lazarus to glorify God. But I can only imagine the pain for Mary
and Martha. Why Lazarus? Why me? My only answer is that Christ is the
Resurrection and the Life.

Now resurrection means something
different for us. Resurrection means a transformation, not going back to the
same old-same old. By resurrection we are changed; we are better morally, and
more beautiful. Death is not ended, it is transcended. We go beyond our present
understanding to one that is deeper and more fulfilling. What resurrection
really means is beyond me on this side of heaven.

Martha speaks out of profound
sorrow at the death of Lazarus, but her words are tinged with a touch of
blaming Jesus: “Lord, if you had been here my brother would not have died.” (John
11:21)

Where do I resent the losses in
my life and somehow blame God for them, rather than seeing them as places where
God's glory will be revealed? Even when Jesus tells Martha that he is the one
who raises the dead to life, she does not understand that he is speaking of the
present.

Where do I doubt that Jesus can
bring life? Jesus stands before the tomb weeping. He places no barriers to his
feelings about death. Could he be staring at and facing the tomb of his own
death? Can I be with him there? Can I stand before the tombs in my daily life,
and face them?

Jesus shouts the liberating words
of life, “Lazarus, come out!” (John 11:43) How is he shouting that to me today?
The grace will come when I experience how my “deaths” will not end in death, but
in giving glory to God. When I experience how entombed I have been, tied and
bound, no longer alive, dead for a long time, I will sense the power of the command
of Jesus that I come forth from the tomb.